She doesn’t know what she was thinking. She had to have just experienced a temporary moment of insanity because otherwise there was no other explanation for why she just popped Adrien (of all people) upside the head.
An akuma. A dozen akumas. A rampaging army of akumas and their minions. Hawkmoth himself riding a chariot of demonic butterflies over the city. She would take any combination of the above over this moment.
Adrien’s eyes are wider than she’s ever seen them before and she’s sure she must be as red as Ladybug’s suit.
OH MY GOD WHAT DID I JUST DO?!? She’s screams in her mind but all that manages to escape her lips is a quiet ‘eep!’. She jerks the offending hand behind her back and wishes she could just disappear into the floor.
“What?” Adrien squeaks.
It had been a pun! A stupid pun! The only one she ever heard puns from with any regularity was Chat and she’d gotten into the habit of smacking him on the back of his head whenever he made a particularly corny or just downright bad one. So when Adrien had made one that fell into the latter category, she had reacted on instinct and…and…
“I’m sorry!” she gasps in reply.
It’s right about then that Alya and Nino absolutely lose it. Alya doubles over, holding her stomach, Nino sinks to the floor with his head in his hands, both of them positively roaring with laughter.
Marinette feels her blush growing deeper and, oh, great now Adrien’s blushing, too. And he’s looking at her strangely. Not in the ‘what the heck did you just smack me for??’ kind of way but more like he’s scrutinising her. She stares back, wide-eyed, and wonders how far she would get if she ran now. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She’d really messed things up this time.
Adrien’s jaw drops and he blinks rapidly like someone just flashed a camera right in his eyes. Then he frowns, eyes narrowing shrewdly, and he says, “That was pawsitively uncalled for.” ‘My lady,’ he mouths at the end.
Marinette slaps both hands over her mouth and spends the next minute and a half trying very, very hard not to scream. Adrien smirks at her the entire time.